When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, it disrupted global supply chains which forced organizations around the world to scramble to react. While there are many lessons learned from the pandemic, especially as we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, it was clear early on that some organizations were better equipped…
The quarterly total revenue of the NAND Flash industry came to US$14.1 billion in 4Q20, showing a quarter over quarter (QoQ) drop of 2.9 percent, according to TrendForce’s latest investigations. The total bit shipments of the NAND Flash industry in 4Q20 registered a QoQ increase of nearly 9 percent. This gain for the most part…
Customer experience matters more than ever because today’s consumers expect greater responsiveness in their daily lives. A much-quoted study by experience management services firm Walker Information predicted that by the end of 2020, customer experience will have overtaken price and product as the key brand differentiator. This reality also is reflected in expectations in the…
A perfect storm of events have converged to create the semiconductor shortage of 2021. High-level collaboration across the electronics supply chain could make the deficit less painful, experts say. Shortages often prompt less-than-optimum purchasing behaviors. Competitive bidding for inventory drives prices up. Exceptions to approved vendor lists become common. And double-ordering – where purchase orders…
U.S. manufacturing activity in December surged to its highest level in more than two years despite supply chain disruptions and Covid-19-related employment constraints. The Institute for Supply Management’s purchasing index, the PMI, reached 60.7 last month, an increase of 3.2 percent from its November reading. Any reading above 50 indicates manufacturing expansion. The tech industry…
Just five years ago, Advanced Micro Devices’ (AMD) acquisition of Xilinx would have sent shockwaves through the distribution channel. Xilinx and archrival Altera, now owned by Intel, were the last holdouts of a practice called shelf-sharing, where two competitors refuse to be sold side by side — “share shelf ” — at a single distributor.…
It would be hard to overstate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on organizations of practically every type. Industries that were prospering until last year are in bankruptcy now. Customer demand for a wide range of consumer goods has abruptly shifted. Countless public institutions and nonprofit organizations which had been viable until the beginning of…
Engineers aren’t that different from procurement professionals — they have more to do and less time to do it. And, like purchasing experts, they are happy with their jobs. More than 1,400 engineers participated in a semi- annual survey conducted by AspenCore Media publications EETimes and EDN. The 2020 edition of the “Mind of the…
Lynn Torrel, Flex’s chief supply chain and procurement officer, was three months on the job when a deadly viral outbreak locked down Wuhan, China. The global electronics manufacturer knew its employees, operations and supply chain faced an unprecedented challenge. “In mid-January we were hearing about the outbreak in Asia, and through talking with our suppliers,…
The phrase you hear a lot from supply chain executives this year is they can’t control the decisions of their suppliers and customers, nor can they constrain a global pandemic. But manufacturing and procurement organizations can mitigate the impact of such events and are focusing on things they can manage. Gartner outlines three trends that…